Some rules and background, Part 3 - Wounds, Dying, Replacement Crews, and Promotions

Wounds and Death

While you are flying, people waving a different flag will be trying to kill you. Sometimes they will succeed, and sometimes they won't.

If you get hit by a flying projectile, one of three things can happen to you:

1. You can get a light wound, which is good for a purple heart and you go right back to action.

2. You can get a serious wound, which is not particularly good. Depending on the wound, you will either be able to stagger back for the next mission, or you will miss the next mission while you recover, or you will be sent home for the remainder of the war, or you will die in the hospital. The most likely outcome is that you will be sent home.

3. You can be killed in action, which is code for "Poor sucker. At least he probably never felt anything."

If you are killed, then you know that back in WWII you would have bought the farm. However, for game purposes, we will need replacement crew members. If you're interested in staying in the game, just post on the mission thread that you would like to reincarnate and reenlist, and you'll be put into a queue to help fill out any shorthanded crews. You will lose your mission count, though, and will start over at your first mission.

If you are a replacement crew member for someone who was KIA, you will be on that crew permanently. If you are a replacement crew member for someone who is sitting out a flight because of a wound, you will yield your position when that person comes back and you will remain at the top of the replacement crew list.

If your plane crashes but you survive, you may or may not receive a new plane. If you are the only surviving crew member, you will be placed at the top of the replacement crew list. If there are two or more survivors in your crew, you will be issued a new plane and a replacement crew.

The priority list for replacement crews is therefore:

1. Surviving original crew members always move to the top of the list.
2. Surviving reincarnated crew members are second on the list.
2. Reincarnated crew members who have seen action as a temporary replacement are third on the list.
3. Newly reincarnated crew members waiting for their first action are fourth on the list.

Replacement crew members will be placed on crews in order of rank. If you're first on the replacement crew list, you will take the highest available opening among the vacant aircrew positions. The two exceptions to this rule are:

1. If you are a surviving aircrew member, you cannot be promoted by more than one position. (See "Promotions" below.)

2. Unless there is a severe shortage of replacement crew members, you will not be assigned to the same crew that you were just killed on.

I'll reserve the right to change this system if it causes problems.

Promotions
If you are on a crew where someone dies or is sent home, there will be a shuffling of duties as crew members get promoted. For example, if the pilot is KIA, the copilot will become the pilot, the bombardier will become the copilot, and so on.

You cannot get promoted more than one position after a single mission. For example if you're the right waist gunner and both the bombardier and the tail gunner are killed, you will not move up two positions. You will only move up one position (to the ball gunner position), and a replacement crew member will fill in the vacancy.